DMK wanted Sonia as PM: WikiLeaks

CHENNAI:  Shedding light on the DMK’s ‘political thinking’ prior to the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, a confidential cable sent from the US Consulate in Chennai in June 2008, released by the whistle-blower site Wikileaks has indicated that the Dravidian party preferred to project Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate instead of Manmohan Singh. Quoting the party’s senior strategist, retired businessman Siva Prakasam,  the then US Consul General Dennis T Hopper said in the cable that  “Sonia Gandhi would be the most appealing in TN while Rahul is “not ready,” and Pranab Mukherjee might be “okay in North India but he would not help much in South.”